Of Magnets, Surgery and Tinnitus

We did a psuedo-ultrafast-pre-op yesterday so that we can get squeezed into a surgery slot on Monday. Surgery is at 9:00 at Stanford, but we have to be there at 7:00 (just in case waiting around during an 1 1/2 long surgery isn't enough sitting--not to mention the hour to two hours of recovery time). Around 10:30 Dr. Joe should be able to come out and give us the details. They'll have a new implant on hand just in case he gets in there and discovers there was actually damage done to the implant and not just a magnet that got dislodged. Apparently he's only seen this happen one other time. When his assistant heard it was one of our boys, she said it didn't surprise her that it would be one of them charting new territory. They'll videotape it for training purposes, just like they did when we had to go through the re-implantation---another "can't-and-won't-happen" that did.

Since the fall, my son has been complaining of extreme tinnitus--head noise, ringing in the head, etc. Call it what you will. It seems to mostly be a problem at night---coincidentally at bedtime. However, it doesn't seem to be just a ploy but an actual aggravation to which there's not much that can be done. I don't remember him talking about this before he hit his head, and it seems like it must be connected. Could the magnet not in place be causing some sort of interference? Could it be creating this condition of tinnitus? And if so, will it go away after surgery? It'll be interesting to find out and to ask the surgeon if he thinks there's a connection. Since he left for a conference in Vienna minutes after examining my son yesterday, there isn't much chance to chat with him now about it.

So that's the latest. I'll post a picture of bandage-head boy after surgery.